MAIN EVENT. A Good Place to Get Started --- a.k.a "Table of Contents"

The Last Temptation of Style

by JENNIFER BLUE

G21 Staff Writer

To read this article in Deutsch, Francaise, Italiano, Portuguese, Espanol, copy and paste the complete URL("http://www.g21.net/cc16.html") and enter it in the box after you click through.

fash-ion (fash'en) n. 1 The prevailing style or mode, esp. in dress.

2 A manner of doing a thing; method; way. 3 The make or shape of a thing. 4 Common practice or custom; usage. 5 Something fashionable.-v.t. 1 To give shape or form to. 2 To conform; accommodate; fit. [L facere to make]--fash'ion-er n.

fashion-monger (fash'en-mung'ger, -mong'-) n.One who follows or initiates fashions.
-Doubleday Dictionary

Fashion, esp. in dress, utters, perhaps, what cannot be so readily sculpted into words. Fashion, its colors, shapes, textures and forms, easily slinks into the symbolic, rather than strictly logical, lakes of the mind. Fashion etches itself into our minds often and deep. Styles are often provocative when they depict the expression of what was previously unexpressed; taboos, anger, promiscuity and other suppressed delights often initially eke out into the open via fashion. Remember the furious punk rockers? Dress style is often accompanied by specific argot and activities; it renders a snapshot of collective and personal attitude and ideology.

Style tempts us to identify ourselves, more completely, collectively and individually. Enough said.

Great collective and individual fears spread like plagues. They get under our skin and consequently seek conscious recognition and expressive form lest we become "neurotic" and "hysterical." Some even become "psychopathic," lashing out, violently and unconsciously, at the external world.

By giving overt form, through fashion, to underlying fear and anxiety, we are offered a way of stylizing and perhaps even exorcising horror. Fashion offers a creative way to stylize what rhetoric and propaganda fail to define; fashion is Art. Catharsis is chaotically gorgeous, ultimately adding a liberating buoyancy to the steps through life.

Tony Montana, of Scarface film fame, shot from the hip a brutally explicit soliloquy addressing bourgeois ethical righteousness. Tony Montana was a Cuban emigrant who earned riches in the lucrative underworld of the American cocaine trade. He, originally from communist Cuba, immediately shape-shifted into a Western Capitalist Idealist. Within a decadent restaurant in Miami, he, somewhat drunk (on alcohol, not cocaine in this scene), orated to the rich patrons around him that they needed someone to point their fingers at -they needed a bad guy. "Make way for the bad guy," he said. Such enchanting simplicity! Sometimes, less is more.

Often people feel more confident about their ideology and their selves when they are opposing someone else's ideology. In this vein, the savagery of the finger pointer is more acceptable then the savagery of the finger pointee because the finger pointer's ideology is believed to be superior to the finger pointee's ideology. 

Go figure. Some finger pointers can create mass hysteria about what chaps their hide. One is "overcompensating" their own fears and faults when one becomes too fanatical about the "defects" of others. Our political representatives are the greatest over-compensators; they are quite frightened and thus frightening. If they are truly our representatives, then they reflect our own terror and ethical righteousness.

To exhibit the Tony Montana dynamic, one is encouraged to spew many expletives (how many times does Mr. Montana say "fuck" or any derivative of "fuck"-"fucking," "fuck you," "motherfucker," etc.-in Scarface?). One is also encouraged to don expensive, refined suits that hang and move awkwardly on the crude character. Abundant arsenal accessorization is imperative for fear effect. One must invite finger pointing at their sociological heresy.

Heretics! Witches! Bitches! Scarlet Letters!

Once upon a time paganists were burned at the stake. Paganists, pantheists and mojo dabblers amorously and sensually embrace Forces of Nature- this freaks-out God Fearing people.

The paganist fear has been de-tabooed. Neo-Paganism is fashionable today; one can often run across women named "Philomena" and men dubbed "Myrlyn" who wear flowing textiles and funky amulets around their necks. Henna dye designs applied to the hands and face further express a deviation from the (Christian specific) God Fearing dogma. Fashion sometimes says "as above so below."

The Scarlet Letter crisis still needs ample expression while impossible, pristine, perfect ideals are Spuriously and Ubiquitously Marketed. A whole gambit of crimes and punishments can be drawn out of hiding with the entire scarlet run of the alphabet. Grab a scarlet A for Adultery or Anger Outburst and then utilize this same A for consequent Asceticism. Everyday in every way many people "sin;" connect and commiserate with fellow sinners by displaying your personal scarlet identity. Strut your imperfect humanity on the catwalk of life.

Before the red writing was on the iron curtain of Capitalist Communist Soviet Union (nee Russia) and Other "Backward" & Strange Lands, the Communist Party was gaining popularity in the United States. Before the "Red Scare" officially took hold of the American masses, Franklin Delano Roosevelt said "there is nothing to fear but fear itself."

Perhaps Papa Josef Stalin and his cronies could have invoked some sympathetic devotion along with fear if these men had occasionally donned perky, precocious Scout Uniforms. Stalin's associates are featured with Girl Scout jumper and skirt. The Scout motto is "be prepared."

At some point, force-feeding despotism becomes difficult; the rabble become indignant, cynical and recalcitrant. The trick is to also implement a feminine attraction principle accessorized with nurturing, sentimentality and sympathy; this "dual electra/oedipal effect" keeps people locked in a place of fearful obedience and oedipal defense. The United States expertly fashions this duality.

The Soviet Union detonated an atomic bomb. The United States (ruling forces) were incensed that their atomic and nuclear weapon monopoly was stirred and shaken. Damn Them. Someone had to be punished, and the Rosenbergs were ideal. Rosenberg victim-of-elitist-ideology motifs should exude a picked-on proletarian aura. The Rosenbergs insisted their innocence through the sensational end of their lives; they were electrocuted for their crimes (divulging atomic secrets to the Russians). Obviously the Rosenbergs were guilty: roses are red violets are blue.

The Red Menace conflict reached a critical plot arc with the Cuban Missile Crisis. Cuban revolutionaries succeeded in overthrowing the Love American Style Batista regime before warming-up to the Red Menace (red is the color of passion, blood and other arterial delights). The innately colorful and gregarious Cuban people had to forego Western World Fashion for drab, ill-fitting, picked-on proletarian clothing styles that were wantonly sketched and sewn behind the Iron Curtain. Good-bye sassy fashion; hello Comrade Couturier. The world pretty much held its breath as a handful of men held the option of massive destruction in their hands. Do you believe in fate? or free will?

The Cuban revolutionaries were a disheveled-looking lot, opposing the crisp, clean-cut, more organized appearing military members that they fought. The Cuban Revolutionaries sported gnarly beards; they smoked missile shaped cigars. Che Guevara initiated new identity and meaning to The Beret. Mary Tyler Moore later diluted the insurgent effect of The Beret.

Many want missiles to, as they say today, "enforce (their brand of) peace."

Public service announcement film clips in the United States demonstrated how children should "duck and cover" if the nuclear bomb threat materialized. Some people added "bomb shelters" to their abodes.

These two models, portraying the Average Ethically Correct Bourgeois American Couple, are clad in comfortable, sporty and virtually wrinkle-free knits for prolonged, anxious periods underground (underworld). The Wife sports peppy Mardi Gras colors, exhibiting the man-made theme of "endings begetting beginnings;" their stockpiled goods can easily ritualize Fat Tuesday any time of the year. The Husband wears blue, a predominant color in many national flags. Blue is the color of some bodies of water, of the sky, of editing pencils.

If you aren't successful enough to add a bomb shelter to the lay of your land, then basic black attire best identifies the abyss that we seem to precariously edge toward. This model wears a Persephone Noir jumper.

Egad. The Red Menace developed anemia and quickly faded.
The Berlin Wall was felled and peddled in the newly enthused capitalist market. Without the Enemy of the Century, American people would breathe too easy (and the cash cow of the war economy would become less warranted). Now what?: Random Terrorism. Hurrah, something even more arbitrary. Psychopathic individuals around the world want to get you. These psychopaths narrow their beady eyes and utter curses when they plot your death (which could happen anytime, anywhere). Someone could sneak a suitcase into the nation that contains whatever is necessary to detonate a nuclear device. Germ and fatal gas aggression are nouveau concerns as is computer system infiltration. Bio-hazard suits, replete with gas masks, can add a snappy sense of preparedness to modern concerns. Why limit or suspend your amusement activities in the public sphere for fear of an arbitrary threat? Instead, slip into one of these bio-hazard beauties and amuse yourself with confidence and style.

These bio-hazard suits are fashioned in bright primary colors that ensure deep, underlying libidinal provocation. Accent gloves add a touch of levity and play to psychic terror. Ensembles displayed are Agent Orange, Retro Red Scare, Glad To Be Here Green, Anthrax Yellow, Bacteria Blue and Pray for Me Pink.

The "narcoguerrilla" provides much post-Red Menace fodder for fear; narcoguerrillas also keep the cash cow of the war economy fat and happy via The War on Drugs. "Drugs," today, are "illicit substances" (marijuana, cocaine, heroin, etc.), whereas not long ago "drugs" were prescribed medication that you picked up at your neighborhood pharmacy. Now "drugs" are "medication" and "illicit substances" are "drugs." If you are a narcoguerrilla you will have citizenship in a Latin country within the Western Hemisphere of the globe-Colombia is especially ideal.

Your dossier, penned by finger pointers, includes "terrorist," "fiend," "scourge," and "killer." You are responsible for the appetite of "drug" consumers, particularly the appetites of "children." You may as well directly inject the drugs into the veins of highly impressionable denizens of countries that feature fanatical finger pointers. Your marxist tendencies and agitation of political and economical status quo (that has a deleterious effect on The People) fools no one; this is just a front, a facade for your terrorism. These guerrilla motifs feature soft pink accents to lighten the psychic load of their heinous reputations.

The United States ruling forces will now increase spending (of taxpayers' money) for "military aid" to Colombia (to defeat the narcoguerrillas who also happen to be political insurgents).

If you are a narcoguerrilla, you are probably irked if other nations interfere in your nation's business. As the finger pointing interference is likely to come from the United States, you probably have many Anti-American "feelings" running through your psyche (ergo, you are "psychopathic"). You probably overuse words like "imperialist" and "hegemony." Guerrillas are amazing in their ability to defeat ruling forces in spite of their comparative lack of "man power." Guerrillas exercise many feminine characteristics as opposed to the strictly "kill kill kill everything and everyone in sight" attitude of manly "war machine" nations. Guerrillas tend to operate on more of a "protection" principle: they want to protect and nurture their country and peoples sans exploitive outside forces. Guerrillas live and operate from woods, forests and mountains; they thrive in wildness. They perform lures, baits and other feminine principle maneuvers (feminine draws in; masculine shoots out).

Masks add a terrifying effect to any motif. Burglers, robbers and other criminals often wear ski masks, pantyhose or other materials over their faces while performing their misdeeds. Hoods were often put over the heads of both executioners and the executed; today that is somewhat passe (as is capital punishment in many nations). Sit at a family dinner with a ski mask over your head and see what happens; you will probably set someone's nerves on edge. Guerrillas fashion masks, for anonymity purposes and also, probably, for the "effect." 

Guerrillas, particularly narcoguerrillas are dubbed "terrorists." One of these photos displays a United States police officer; they too wear masks; who is imitating whom?

Gun hysteria is the fanaticism dujour.  

Whole new scores of statistics and blame are trotted out in catwalk fashion. Op-ed sections of periodicals abound with pathos. Faux leather gloves come in blue and red. Red gloves discern one who is more inclined to disturb peace while blue gloves point out one who is inclined to enforce peace. Rhetoric is slippery; fashion is succinct.

	This dominatrix vixen motif
	affords every individual the potential of modifying the behaviors of others. Conform what irks your rough with the snap of a whip. Cigarettes got you vexed? then lash-out with more flair and crack that whip. Stiletto heels punctuate your opinions.

The statistic ensemble features blazer, blouse, skirt, sarong and trousers that can be mixed and matched to skew statistics for your daily changing Agenda. Impress your family, friends and colleagues with "printed facts.".

Stock market print accessories afford the individual on-the-go a way to exhibit stock market obsession without wasting precious energy prattling on about it ad nauseum; your disenchanted and disinterested friends will thank you. The young, sophisticated miss gas mask dress offers a direct link to The Children Agenda; no adult agents with this motif! The blank slate "design us" jumpers and suits save time, money and energy for those who are experiencing identity crisis in a quickly changing, mixed-message world.

The fashion of this epoch
exhibits a grotesquely beautiful style in its lack of style. Perhaps we are under the influence of an eclipse. The last temptation of style is usually indicative of a new beginning that has been laying, anxiously, in wait. Fashion your passion, pathos and fear.

+++ The Previous CULTURECAST +++ THE NEXT CULTURECAST +++